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Loot 4 Less vol. 1: Rings & Things
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<blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2534115" data-attributes="member: 24255"><p><strong>Loot 4 Less Vol. 1: Rings & Things</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>LOOT 4 LESS VOL. 1: RINGS & THINGS</strong></p><p>By Owen K.C. Stephens</p><p>ID Adventures product number IDA50011</p><p>12-page PDF, $1.25</p><p></p><p><em>Loot 4 Less vol. 1: Rings & Things</em> is the first in a new series by renowned freelancer Owen K.C. Stephens dealing with inexpensive magic items, specifically those that can be purchased for under 2,500 gp. It's an interesting niche on which to concentrate, and Owen makes a good case for the necessity of a greater variety of low-priced magic items. This first volume deals with weapons, armor, and rings; presumably the other types of magic items will be covered in subsequent volumes in the series.</p><p></p><p>I normally cover the artwork in the second paragraph of my review. This will be a short paragraph, as there isn't any artwork in this product; the cover consists of the title in big bold font on a white background. Still, for $1.25, I hope you weren't expecting an Elmore painting! Owen chooses to forego artwork to keep the price down, and that's a perfectly acceptable choice by me.</p><p></p><p>There are a couple of main points I want to make in this review; since the PDF itself is only 12 pages long (and that includes the "front cover," a credits/table of contents page, an ad page for other ID Adventures products, the OGL page, and the "back cover"), this will be one of my shorter reviews. First of all, much of the mechanics stem around the "+1/2 bonus" concept that Owen concocts for magic armor and weapons pricing. He shaves some money off the cost of creating low-powered magic weapons and armor by allowing such items to be made from non-masterwork items, so long as the magic item only has a +1/2 bonus. This might strike some people as being inherently wrong, but Owen makes a good case for it and does a good job building on the concept to come up with some very nice sample items. He also figures out a way to convert many of the alchemical items into multi-use magic items, although I think some further tweaking to the system might be in order, because some of the results - particularly those items that can be made into weapons of a sort, like the <em>tanglefoot ring</em>, which can fire off the equivalent of a tanglefoot bag every round for a total cost of 900 gp - seem quite a bit underpriced.</p><p></p><p>I like the fact that Owen includes numerous sidebars throughout the PDF where he explains his reasoning for going the way he did with the pricing. While I don't agree with all of his explanations, I can at least see where he's coming from, and it makes it that much easier to tweak if you wish to do some altering to the cost calculations.</p><p></p><p>The biggest problem I have with <em>Loot 4 Less vol. 1</em> (well, besides that silly "4" in the title; don't you think "Loot for Less" does the job much better, without sounding like Owen's desperately trying to be "cool" like all the hip-hoppers or whatnot?) is the proofreading/editing job. Let's just say that, in my own humble opinion, I shouldn't be able to compile a list of 48 proofreading glitches in a 12-page PDF, especially since only 7 pages of it contain actual gaming content. These run the gamut from incorrect d20 terminology (experience points are abbreviated here as "exp," not "xp" and the Quick Draw feat is referred to alternately as "Quickdraw" and "Quickness"), improper capitalization, improper alphabetization, typos ("that" instead of "than"), and a complete lack of understanding of the difference between "it's" and "its." Also, the <em>ring of dowsing</em> must have been cobbled together from a rod, as the write-up for that item not only refers to it once as a rod but also calls for the Craft Rod feat instead of the Forge Ring feat for its creation. What makes this even sadder is the fact that not only is Fern Stephens Thung (I'll go out on a limb and assume this is Owen's sister?) credited with the editing of this product, but Lj Stephens is also credited with "additional editing." I hate to have to say it, but I'm afraid a third editor is probably in order for any additional volumes in this series. (As always, I'll forward my list of errors to the IDA staff, and with any luck the product will be updated shortly.)</p><p></p><p><em>Loot 4 Less vol. 1: Rings & Things</em> is not a bad product for a mere $1.25, if only for the "+1/2 bonus" concept and the much larger variety of low-priced magic items that concept opens up. A much stronger editing job would probably have pushed my rating up a notch; as it is, I'm going to go with a "3 (Average)" for this one, and hope for a stronger product the next time around.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="John Cooper, post: 2534115, member: 24255"] [b]Loot 4 Less Vol. 1: Rings & Things[/b] [b]LOOT 4 LESS VOL. 1: RINGS & THINGS[/b] By Owen K.C. Stephens ID Adventures product number IDA50011 12-page PDF, $1.25 [i]Loot 4 Less vol. 1: Rings & Things[/i] is the first in a new series by renowned freelancer Owen K.C. Stephens dealing with inexpensive magic items, specifically those that can be purchased for under 2,500 gp. It's an interesting niche on which to concentrate, and Owen makes a good case for the necessity of a greater variety of low-priced magic items. This first volume deals with weapons, armor, and rings; presumably the other types of magic items will be covered in subsequent volumes in the series. I normally cover the artwork in the second paragraph of my review. This will be a short paragraph, as there isn't any artwork in this product; the cover consists of the title in big bold font on a white background. Still, for $1.25, I hope you weren't expecting an Elmore painting! Owen chooses to forego artwork to keep the price down, and that's a perfectly acceptable choice by me. There are a couple of main points I want to make in this review; since the PDF itself is only 12 pages long (and that includes the "front cover," a credits/table of contents page, an ad page for other ID Adventures products, the OGL page, and the "back cover"), this will be one of my shorter reviews. First of all, much of the mechanics stem around the "+1/2 bonus" concept that Owen concocts for magic armor and weapons pricing. He shaves some money off the cost of creating low-powered magic weapons and armor by allowing such items to be made from non-masterwork items, so long as the magic item only has a +1/2 bonus. This might strike some people as being inherently wrong, but Owen makes a good case for it and does a good job building on the concept to come up with some very nice sample items. He also figures out a way to convert many of the alchemical items into multi-use magic items, although I think some further tweaking to the system might be in order, because some of the results - particularly those items that can be made into weapons of a sort, like the [i]tanglefoot ring[/i], which can fire off the equivalent of a tanglefoot bag every round for a total cost of 900 gp - seem quite a bit underpriced. I like the fact that Owen includes numerous sidebars throughout the PDF where he explains his reasoning for going the way he did with the pricing. While I don't agree with all of his explanations, I can at least see where he's coming from, and it makes it that much easier to tweak if you wish to do some altering to the cost calculations. The biggest problem I have with [i]Loot 4 Less vol. 1[/i] (well, besides that silly "4" in the title; don't you think "Loot for Less" does the job much better, without sounding like Owen's desperately trying to be "cool" like all the hip-hoppers or whatnot?) is the proofreading/editing job. Let's just say that, in my own humble opinion, I shouldn't be able to compile a list of 48 proofreading glitches in a 12-page PDF, especially since only 7 pages of it contain actual gaming content. These run the gamut from incorrect d20 terminology (experience points are abbreviated here as "exp," not "xp" and the Quick Draw feat is referred to alternately as "Quickdraw" and "Quickness"), improper capitalization, improper alphabetization, typos ("that" instead of "than"), and a complete lack of understanding of the difference between "it's" and "its." Also, the [i]ring of dowsing[/i] must have been cobbled together from a rod, as the write-up for that item not only refers to it once as a rod but also calls for the Craft Rod feat instead of the Forge Ring feat for its creation. What makes this even sadder is the fact that not only is Fern Stephens Thung (I'll go out on a limb and assume this is Owen's sister?) credited with the editing of this product, but Lj Stephens is also credited with "additional editing." I hate to have to say it, but I'm afraid a third editor is probably in order for any additional volumes in this series. (As always, I'll forward my list of errors to the IDA staff, and with any luck the product will be updated shortly.) [i]Loot 4 Less vol. 1: Rings & Things[/i] is not a bad product for a mere $1.25, if only for the "+1/2 bonus" concept and the much larger variety of low-priced magic items that concept opens up. A much stronger editing job would probably have pushed my rating up a notch; as it is, I'm going to go with a "3 (Average)" for this one, and hope for a stronger product the next time around. [/QUOTE]
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